In this paper we study some properties of degenerations of surfaces whose general fibre is a smooth projective surface and whose central fibre is a reduced, connected surface $X \subset IP^r$, $r \geq 3$, which is assumed to be a union of smooth projective surfaces, in particular of planes. Our original motivation has been a series of papers of G. Zappa which appeared in the 1940-50's regarding degenerations of scrolls to unions of planes.
Here, we present a first set of results on the subject; other aspects are still work in progress and will appear later.
We first study the geometry and the combinatorics of a surface like $X$, considered as a reduced, connected surface on its own; then we focus on the case in which X is the central fibre of a degeneration of relative dimension two over the complex unit disk. In this case, we deduce some of the intrinsic and extrinsic invariants of the general fibre from the ones of its central fibre.
In the particular case of $X$ a central fibre of a semistable degeneration, i.e. $X$ has only global normal crossing singularities and the total space of the degeneration is smooth, some of the above invariants can be also computed by topological methods (i.e., the Clemens-Schmid exact sequence). Our results are more general, not only because the computations are independent on the fact that $X$ is the central fibre of a degeneration, but also because the degeneration is not semistable in general.
We constructed a projective moduli space of semistable torsion free sheaves with `fixed determinant' on a reducible curve. When a family of smooth curves degenerates to the reducible curve, our moduli space is a degeneration of the moduli spaces of semistable vector bundles with a fixed determinant on the smooth curves. Moreover, the moduli space is reduced and seminormal.
In this paper we study degenerations of scrolls to union of planes, a problem already considered by G. Zappa in 1940-50. We prove, using techniques different from the ones of Zappa, a degeneration result to union of planes with the mildest possible singularities, for linearly normal scrolls of genus $g$ and of degree $d$ larger than $2g+4$ in $\Pp^{d-2g+1}$. We also study properties of components of the Hilbert scheme parametrizing scrolls. Finally we review Zappa's original approach.
In this paper we consider a reducible degeneration of a hyperelliptic curve of genus $g$. Using the Sato Grassmannian we show that the limits of hyperelliptic solutions of the KP-hierarchy exist and become soliton solutions of various types. We recover some results of Abenda who studied regular soliton solutions corresponding to a reducible rational curve obtained as a degeneration of a hyperelliptic curve. We study singular soliton solutions as well and clarify how the singularity structure of solutions is reflected in the matrices which determine soliton solutions.
This paper surveys and gives a uniform exposition of results contained in papers published by the team of authors. The subject is degenerations of surfaces, especially to unions of planes. More specifically, we deduce some properties of the smooth surface which is the general fibre of the degeneration from combinatorial features of the central fibre. In particular we show that there are strong constraints on the invariants of a smooth surface which degenerates to configurations of planes. Finally we consider several examples of embedded degenerations of smooth surfaces to unions of planes. Our…
We study the real loci of toric degenerations of complex varieties with reducible central fibre. We show that the topology of such degenerations can be explicitly described via the Kato-Nakayama space of the central fibre as a log space. We furthermore provide generalities of real structures in log geometry and their lift to Kato-Nakayama spaces. A key point of this paper is a description of the Kato-Nakayama space of a toric degeneration and its real locus, both as bundles determined by combinatorial data. We provide several examples including real toric degenerations of K3-surfaces and a tor…
Results due to Druel and Beauville show that the blowup of the intermediate Jacobian of a smooth cubic threefold X in the Fano surface of lines can be identified with a moduli space of semistable sheaves of Chern classes c_1=0, c_2=2, c_3=0 on X. Here we further identify this space with a space of matrix factorizations. This has the advantage that this description naturally generalizes to singular and even reducible cubic threefolds. In this way, given a degeneration of X to a reducible cubic threefold X_0, we obtain an associated degeneration of the above moduli spaces of semistable sheaves.
We develop a formula (Theorem 5.1) which allows to compute top Chern classes of vector bundles on the vanishing locus $V(s)$ of a section of this bundle. This formula particularly applies in the case when $V(s)$ is the union of locally complete intersections giving the individual contribution of each component and their mutual intersections. We conclude with applications to the enumeration of rational curves in complete intersections in projective space.
In this article we construct a specific projective degeneration of K3 surfaces of degree 2g-2 in P^g to a union of 2g-2 planes, which meet in such a way that the combinatorics of the configuration of planes is a triangulation of the 2-sphere. Abstractly, such degenerations are said to be Type III degenerations of K3 surfaces. Although the birational geometry of such degenerations is fairly well understood, the study of projective degenerations is not nearly as completely developed. In this article we construct degenerations for which the general member is embedded by a multiple of the primitiv…
We develop a technique to study curves in a variety which has a degeneration into some union of varieties. The class of such varieties is very broad, but the theory becomes particularly useful when the variety has a degeneration into a union of toric varieties. Hypersurfaces are typical examples, and we study lines on K3 surfaces and quintic Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in detail. In particular, we combinatorially prove the existence of 2875 lines in a generic quintic Calabi-Yau 3-fold. Also, we give a geometric construction of walls in the Gross-Siebert construction of Calabi-Yau varieties.
In this paper, we study maps from reducible curves $f : C \cup_ΓD \to \mathbb{P}^r$. We restrict our attention to two cases: first, when $f|_D$ factors through a hyperplane $H$ and $f|_C$ is transverse to $H$; and second, when $r = 3$. Degeneration to stable maps of this type have played a crucial role in works of Hartshorne, Ballico, and others, on special cases of the maximal rank conjecture. However, the general problem of studying when such stable maps with specified combinatorial types exist remains open. Here, we give criteria for such Brill--Noether curves of this first type to exist, o…
The Hartshorne--Hirschowitz theorem says that a generic union of lines in $\mathbb{P}^n$, $(n\geq 3)$, has good postulation. The proof of Hartshorne and Hirschowitz in the initial case $\mathbb{P}^3$ is difficult and so long, which is handled by a method of specialization via a smooth quadric surface with the property of having two rulings of skew lines. We provide a proof in the case $\mathbb{P}^3$ based on a new degeneration of disjoint lines via a plane $H\cong\mathbb{P}^2$, which we call $(2,s)$-cone configuration, that is a schematic union of $s$ intersecting lines passing through a singl…
In this article we exhibit certain projective degenerations of smooth $K3$ surfaces of degree $2g-2$ in $\Bbb P^g$ (whose Picard group is generated by the hyperplane class), to a union of two rational normal scrolls, and also to a union of planes. As a consequence we prove that the general hyperplane section of such $K3$ surfaces has a corank one Gaussian map, if $g=11$ or $g\geq 13$. We also prove that the general such hyperplane section lies on a unique $K3$ surface, up to projectivities. Finally we present a new approach to the classification of prime Fano threefolds of index one, which doe…
Let $Y_{1},\dots,Y_{l}$ be smooth irreducible projective curves and let $Y$ be its disjoint union. Given a semisimple reductive algebraic group $G$ and a faithful representation $ρ:G\hookrightarrow \textrm{SL}(V)$ we construct a projective moduli space of $(\underlineκ,δ)$-(semi)stable singular principal $G$-bundles with generalized parabolic structure of type $\underline{e}$. In case $Y$ is the normalization of a connected and reducible projective nodal curve $X$, there is a closed subscheme coarsely representing the subfunctor corresponding to descending bundles. We prove that the descent op…
This paper studies curves on quartic K3 surfaces, or more generally K3 surfaces which are complete intersection in weighted projective spaces. A folklore conjecture concerning rational curves on K3 surfaces states that all K3 surfaces contain infinite number of irreducible rational curves. It is known that all K3 surfaces, except those contained in the countable union of hypersurfaces in the moduli space of K3 surfaces satisfy this property. In this paper we present a new approach for constructing curves on varieties which admit nice degenerations. We apply this technique to the above problem …
(1,d)-polarized abelian surfaces in P^(d-1) with two plane cubic curve fibrations lie in two elliptic P^2-scrolls. The union of these scrolls form a reducible Calabi-Yau 3-fold. In this paper we show that this occurs when d<10 and analyse the family of such surfaces and 3-folds in detail when d=6. In particular, the reducible Calabi-Yau 3-folds deform in that case to irreducible ones with non-normal singularities.
We give a detailed analysis of the semisimple elements, in the sense of Vinberg, of the third exterior power of a 9-dimensional vector space over an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2 and 3. To a general such element, one can naturally associate an Abelian surface X, which is embedded in 8-dimensional projective space. We study the combinatorial structure of this embedding and explicitly recover the genus 2 curve whose Jacobian variety is X. We also classify the types of degenerations of X that can occur. Taking the union over all Abelian surfaces in Heisenberg norma…
In this paper we present an example of two polarized K3 surfaces which are not Fundamental Group Equivalent (their fundamental groups of the complement of the branch curves are not isomorphic; denoted by FGE) but the fundamental groups of their related Galois covers are isomorphic. For each surface, we consider a generic projection to CP^2 and a degenerations of the surface into a union of planes - the "pillow" degeneration for the non-prime surface and the "magician" degeneration for the prime surface. We compute the Braid Monodromy Factorization (BMF) of the branch curve of each projected su…
We give a simple expression for the integral of the canonical holomorphic volume form in degenerating families of varieties constructed from wall structures and with central fiber a union of toric varieties. The cycles to integrate over are constructed from tropical 1-cycles in the intersection complex of the central fiber. One application is a proof that the mirror map for the canonical formal families of Calabi-Yau varieties constructed by Gross and the second author is trivial. We also show that these families are the completion of an analytic family, without reparametrization, and that the…
Computation of the fundamental group of the complement in the complex plane of the branch curve S , of a generic projection of the Veronese surface to the plane is presented. This paper is a continuation of our previous papers: Braid Group Technique I - IV. In I and II we developed algorithms to compute braid monodromy of a brunch curve, provided there exist a degeneration of the surface to union of planes in a configuration where the associated branch curve is partial to a line arrangement dual to generic. In III we constructed a degeneration of the Veronese surface of order 3 to union of pla…
In this short note we discuss the exceptional locus for the Lang-Vojta's conjecture in the case of the complement of two completely reducible hyperplane sections in a cubic surface. Using elementary methods, we show that generically the exceptional set is the union of the remaining 21 lines in the surface. We also describe examples in which the exceptional set is strictly larger.
We describe, for various degenerations $S\to Δ$ of quartic $K3$ surfaces over the complex unit disk (e.g., to the union of four general planes, and to a general Kummer surface), the limits as $t\in Δ^*$ tends to 0 of the Severi varieties $V_δ(S_t)$, parametrizing irreducible $δ$-nodal plane sections of $S_t$. We give applications of this to (i) the counting of plane nodal curves through base points in special position, (ii) the irreducibility of Severi varieties of a general quartic surface, and (iii) the monodromy of the universal family of rational curves on quartic $K3$ surfaces.
We show that a large class of maximally degenerating families of n-dimensional polarized varieties come with a canonical basis of sections of powers of the ample line bundle. The families considered are obtained by smoothing a reducible union of toric varieties governed by a wall structure on a real n-(pseudo-)manifold. Wall structures have previously been constructed inductively for cases with locally rigid singularities and by Gromov-Witten theory for mirrors of log Calabi-Yau surfaces and K3 surfaces by various combinations of the authors. For trivial wall structures on the n-torus we retri…
We denote by $\mathcal{H}_{d,g,r}$ the Hilbert scheme of smooth curves, which is the union of components whose general point corresponds to a smooth irreducible and non-degenerate curve of degree $d$ and genus $g$ in $\mathbb{P}^r$. In this article, we show that any non-empty $\mathcal{H}_{g+1,g,4}$ has only one component whose general element is linear normal unless $g=9$. If $g=9$, we show that $\mathcal{H}_{g+1,g,4}$ is reducible with two components and a general element of each component is linearly normal. This establishes the validity of a certain modified version of an assertion of Seve…
Star configurations are certain unions of linear subspaces of projective space that have been studied extensively. We develop a framework for studying a substantial generalization, which we call matroid configurations, whose ideals generalize Stanley-Reisner ideals of matroids. Such a matroid configuration is a union of complete intersections of a fixed codimension. Relating these to the Stanley-Reisner ideals of matroids and using methods of Liaison Theory allows us, in particular, to describe the Hilbert function and minimal generators of the ideal of, what we call, a hypersurface configurat…
In this paper, we present a number of examples of k-nets, which are special configurations of lines and points in the projective plane. Such a configuration can be regarded as the union of k completely reducible elements of a pencil of complex plane curves; equivalently it can be regarded as a set of k polygons in the complex projective plane that satisfy a condition of mutual perspectivity and nondegenerate intersection. For each example, we describe its construction, combinatorial properties, and parameter space. Most of the examples are historical, although perhaps not very well-known; our …
We study certain mild degenerations of algebraic varieties which appear in the analysis of a large class of supersymmetric theories, including superstring theory. We analyze Witten's sigma-model and find that the non-transversality of the superpotential induces a singularization and stratification of the ground state variety. This stratified variety (the union of the singular ground state variety and its exo-curve strata) admit homology groups which, excepting the middle dimension, satisfy the "Kahler package" of requirements, extend the "flopped" pair of small resolutions to an "(exo)flopped"…
The SHGH conjecture proposes a solution to the question of how many conditions a general union of fat points imposes on the complete linear system of curves in $\mathbb P^2$ of fixed degree $d$, and it is known to be true in many cases. We propose a new problem, namely to understand the number of conditions imposed by a general union of fat points on the incomplete linear system defined by the condition of passing through a given finite set of points $Z$ (not general). Motivated by work of Di Gennaro-Ilardi-Vallès and Faenzi-Vallès, we give a careful analysis for the case where there is a sing…
